With hospitalizations in Albany County at their highest level since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Albany Medical Center’s general director answered a number of questions Thursday on what hospitals can handle right now, and what the vaccine rollout will look like in the region.

Dr. Ferdinand Venditti of Albany Med joined County Executive Dan McCoy on Thursday, expressing confidence that area hospitals have the capacity for more patients amid a spike in cases in the county.

That capacity is being put to the test in recent weeks: McCoy announced that hospitalizations are at their highest since the start of the pandemic, rising four in the last day to a total of 98. There are 208 new positive COVID-19 cases in the county in the last day, bringing the five-day average up to 170 new cases per day. The new cases are another new single-day high for the county.

“We are prepared to provide the care the community needs. That doesn’t mean we’re not worried about what’s happening,” Venditti said. “The numbers are troubling.”

Currently, Venditti says Albany med has approximately 60 COVID-19 patients, with ages ranging from teens to the 90s. He added, though, that intensive care hospitalizations were higher in the spring, and the reason for that is currently unknown.

With multiple vaccines in review stages and on their way to approval – and Gov. Andrew Cuomo saying Wednesday that New York could receive its first doses of a vaccine as soon as this weekend – Venditti faced a number of vaccine-related questions Thursday. He said he’s read a 53-page FDA document on the vaccine, and feels comfortable with both getting it and his family getting it.

He noted that it will not, however, be mandatory for Albany Med employees to be vaccinated.

Two more deaths reported in the last day – a man in his 70s and a woman in her 90s – bring Albany County’s death toll to 172 since the start of the pandemic. There were 118 new recoveries in the last day as well.